Posted by BrittPark on November 5, 2002, at 12:23:21
In reply to Re: Opiates = the Devil Amphetamines = Angels?, posted by Kara Lynne on November 5, 2002, at 12:05:41
Boy, I'm a blabber-mouth on this topic. I don't think that addiction is inevitable with opioids. There are plenty of people with moderate to severe chronic pain (slipped disk etc.) who are able to take a stable dose of vicodin (for instance) without loosing efficacy. There are also some posts on this board from people who are using vicodin for depression and not needing to escalate. This is not to say that everybody can take opioids without dose escalation. In fact I expect that the vast majority of people do develop tolerance.
So I think your doctor is technically incorrect, even though he's correct for most people. However, its easy enough to find out whether you are one of the lucky ones. A two week trial of an opioid will expose tolerance development. At that point it's usually fairly easy to discontinue.
Britt
poster:BrittPark
thread:126471
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20021101/msgs/126520.html